ROGERS — Rogers High has been on the receiving end of several punishing runs this season, but Tuesday the Mounties turned the tables.
Rogers used an 18-3 run that spanned halftime and the Mounties then held off a late charge to defeat Rogers Heritage 48-40 in a 7A/6A-West Conference boys basketball game. The win snapped a five-game losing streak by the Mounties (7-12, 1-5).
“Any win is a big win,” Rogers coach Wayne Herren said. “I couldn’t be more proud of the guys because they hung in there. We executed well.”
Hunter Hill led Rogers with 16 points and the junior hit three free throws the final 27 seconds to ice the victory. Senior Zach Jones added 12 points and 12 rebounds. Jones scored 11 points in the second half as the Mounties built a 16-point lead at 40-24 with just over four minutes left in the game.
Rogers High 48, Rogers Heritage 40
Rogers 4 14 11 19 — 48
Heritage 6 7 9 18 — 40
Rogers (7-12, 1-5): H. Hill 16, Jones 12, Holt 8, Killingsworth 6, Adams 2, Gentz 2, R. Hill 2.
Heritage (9-9, 0-6): Fryauf 14, Olsen 9, Greenway 6, Kinnamon 4, Hirsh 4, Robbins 2, Thomas 1.
“Zach is just gutting it out and working hard for us,” Herren said.
Luke Fryauf led Heritage with 14 points and his layup with 51.1 seconds left cut the Mounties lead to 44-37. Crist Olsen added nine points for the War Eagles while Hayden Greenway hit a pair of fourth quarter 3-pointers to finish with six points.
“I like the way we finished the game, but we have to play 32 minutes,” Heritage coach Tom Olsen said. “We haven’t done that this year.”
Hill started the run with a 3-pointer and his layup with 1:28 left in the first half gave the Mounties a 14-13 lead. Brett Gentz then hit a layup and Keifer Holt had a steal and layup to give Rogers an 18-13 lead at halftime.
“The steal and basket by Keifer right before halftime was huge,” Herren said.
Rogers was 3-of-16 from the field the first 14 minutes of the first half before making its last five shots for the five-point halftime lead. Heritage didn’t score over the final four minutes of the first half after Fryauf gave the War Eagles a 13-9 lead with a layup.
Rogers then hit four layups to start the third quarter while taking a 27-16 lead.